Hugh Scott, corporate communications officer for the new Hewlett-Packard, was reluctant to comment on the strategies taken by Hewlett-Packard in the US but declared that they wouldn't be repeated here.
Absent from the company's reasoning on the matter was recognition that Australia is outside the traditional holiday season of the US, however, Scott said the US events shouldn't colour opinions on the role that contractors might play in the new Hewlett Packard in Australia.
"Both contractors and headcount employees are very important to the new HP going forward," he said.
Scott was unable to put a figure on the number of contractors used across the reformed company in Australia, but said they occupied every division of the new Hewlett Packard.
Some of the 4,000 contract workers HP plans to layoff over the summer in North America may be let go permanently.
HP spokesperson Arch Currid said last week that the company plans to have about 4,000 contractors in North America halt work for the three weeks from June 24 through to July 12, as the company evaluates projects and determines which efforts should continue. Some contract workers on other projects have already been let go, Currid said.
The moves are separate from the company's plan to cut 15,000 jobs over the coming months, but are tied to overall efforts to trim expenses after the company's acquisition of Compaq.
Currid said there is no specific target number of contractors to be cut, but he noted that the three-week layoff period is projected to save the company between US$15 million and US$20 million alone.
Project managers for the contractors were made aware of the coming layoffs in early June, although many individual contract workers are just now learning of the plan.
ZDNet Australia contributed to this report
